The Measure of Worth
by Discord1
Summary: A R/A alternate universe fic set in medieval France! Akane is a duchess who doesn't ever want to become a "proper lady". When she runs away from her title and home, she meets a strong-willed pigtailed boy who'll change her measure on everything.
1. A Chance Meeting

The Measure of Worth  
By: Discord  
  
  
A/N: My first Ranma 1/2 romance, yay!!! An Alternate Universe fic set in medieval France featuring everyone's fav couple Ranma and Akane ^_^.   
  
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CHAPTER 1 - A Chance Meeting  
  
  
"Lady Akane, you mustn't do this! If your father finds out...." An anxious maid wrung the hem of her apron in her hands and quickly looked to the closed door, as if already seeing a red-faced Soun Tendo storming towards them.  
  
"Nonsense! Father is away at that bureaucrat Tofu's estate and I will only be gone for the afternoon. There's nothing to worry about Georgette." Akane smiled in reassurance and finished wrapping her chest. She turned to a worn pair of breeches on a nearby chair and her grin grew as she stepped into a leg.  
  
"But Lady Akane! You cannot parade around the kingdom like a street vagrant! What would your fiancé think?!" The maid was aghast at her mistress's unladylike conduct and twisted her apron tighter in her hands.  
  
"Let him think whatever he likes!" Akane shrugged and pulled the loose breeches up over her hips. "I will have one day that is all my own before I am bound, tied and married off!" She gave the handmaiden a vehement, determined look and then slipped a work shirt on over her head.  
  
"But Mistress, hasn't Lord Ryoga always been kind and gentle to you? Why would you want to disobey his request that you stay inside the castle? He only has your best interests at heart-"  
  
"I'd like to decide what's best on my own Georgette, without my fiancé's help." Akane lifted her chin defiantly and began to tuck the shirt into her breeches. She could see from the look in the other woman's eyes that she just didn't understand Akane. It was too much for the comely maid to comprehend why her mistress wanted to journey to the village against the word of a man like Ryoga.   
  
"It's because my whole life is already planned out for me." Akane answered the handmaiden's unspoken question and Georgette put her hands on her hips.  
  
"And what's wrong with that?" The woman asked indignantly. "You have a safe home, a respectful title and a noble lord who loves you. What more could any woman want?"  
  
"I want to be myself!" Akane cried out in exasperation and threw her hands up in the air. "I want to run barefoot and learn to cuss. I want people to see me for who I am, without airs and pretenses."  
  
The handmaiden looked at her like she was crazy and Akane sighed, realizing that it was no use.   
  
She closed her eyes and shook her head, fighting back the idea that she would forever be confined to the status of a proper lady. Exhaling slowly, Akane tied a faded red bandana around her forehead. Ignoring the maid's look of disapproval she strode to the fireplace and patted her cheeks with ash.  
  
"So, what do you think? Could I pass for a boy?" Akane stood up and turned around in a circle, burying down the bleak thoughts of her future with a forced smile.  
  
"They'll be able to tell you're a woman in a moment my lady. The way you walk and talk and act will give you away. And your cheekbones and chin and profile are all much too feminine. Just bandaging down your breasts won't do much to hide the fact that you are not male."  
  
"Well...we'll just see," Akane put her hands on her hips and frowned a little. "Go out into the hall and make sure no one is coming." She gave a little wave away from her, looking cross.  
  
The maid bowed and made her way across the carpeted floor. She peeked open the door and saw that the dark corridor was empty.  
  
"All's clear my lady," Georgette turned around and a breeze from the newly opened window was her only response in the now empty room.  
  
  
***  
  
  
Akane walked through the streets with her mouth agape, watching as people sold cattle and produce from shabby, makeshift stands on either side of her. Everything seemed to be covered in a layer of dirt and hay and Akane found the barn smell that permeated the marketplace new and delightful. Heckling voices sounded all around her and she watched as a pigtailed boy around her age argued with a street vendor selling fish.  
  
"You old hustler! I could have caught better trout than these with my teeth! I wouldn't pay one farthing for the likes of this fish!" The boy made a face as he held up a sickly looking perch and the proprietor leaned over his cart with a dark scowl.  
  
"Get outta here Ranma, go bother someone else," the man's gruff voice sounded menacing and his brows drew together in anger. "Your big mouth's bad for business." Ranma tipped his hand to his forehead in acknowledgment and smiled.   
  
"So, are you gonna give me a fish? Or do you want me to use that mouth of mine?"  
  
"Why you lousy no good-"  
  
Interrupting the shop owner the boy cupped his hands around his weapon. "Looks like you're trying to sell CRUDDY FISH HERE..." he stopped as several people glanced over and the man's dark look intensified.  
  
"All right, all right," he snarled and threw Ranma a thin mackerel. "Now get!"  
  
Triumphantly the pigtailed boy turned with his lunch and Akane smiled in spite of herself. She couldn't help but admire his determination.  
Akane was turning to go and didn't notice the shop owner as he came out from behind his cart. She caught his movement from the corner of her eye and watched as the swindled man aimed a punch for Ranma's back. Akane yelled out a warning just as he swung.  
  
"Look out!" She called, knowing it was too late. Ranma whipped his head around at the sound and instinctually ducked.  
  
The proprietor's intended blow missed and he struck nothing but air. The boy was a blur of movement as he dropped to the ground and swung his foot around in an arc, kicking the legs out from under the disgruntled fish vendor and toppling him to the ground.  
  
Ranma smirked and rose from his crouch. He turned away from the downed man and met Akane's gaze. She smiled slightly as he walked over and she unconsciously tucked her short hair behind her ears.  
  
"Thanks," he said, stopping in front of her. "He would have really clobbered me if I'd been taken off guard."  
  
Akane shrugged. "I don't know about that, you still managed to take him down even with only that second to spare."  
  
"Well thanks for the warning," the boy smiled. "My name's Ranma." He stuck his hand out and Akane clasped his palm in hers.  
  
"I'm A-" she started to say, but remembered her disguise just in time. "I'm... uh... Ryoga."  
  
"Nice to meet you Ryoga," Ranma smiled, then grimaced. "That's quite a grip you've got there," he nodded at their handshake and Akane blushed, letting her hand fall in embarrassment.   
  
"S-sorry..."  
  
"Don't worry about it, I'm just surprised that a skinny fellow like you can be so strong." Ranma nodded in approval and Akane smiled sheepishly.   
  
"A lot of people underestimate me I guess,"  
  
The boy nodded. "I get that a lot too. So, you live around these parts? I haven't seen you here in the market before...."  
  
"Actually, I work up at the castle. I tend to its gardens and the surrounding grounds." Akane recited her practiced lie and thought that it might as well have been the truth. She spent most of her days in the forest outside her home's towering stone walls, helping the aging gardener whenever she got the chance.  
  
Ranma whistled. "That must be a tough job, what with those priggish royals ordering you around all day. I wouldn't wish a meaner bunch to work for even on that spiteful vendor." The boy hiked his thumb back to the groaning man who still lay in the marketplace square and Akane couldn't keep the shock from her face.   
  
"P-Priggish? Mean?!" Her face grew hot at the slur against her family. "What are you talking about?! Do other people feel this way too?"  
  
"Of course! The royals live off our labor. All they do is sit around all day eating and congratulating themselves on being lords over us." Ranma made a face. "They leave a foul taste in my mouth and I hope the Duke and his three snotty daughters die a slow death."  
  
Akane's palm connected with his cheek a moment after he finished and a red handprint blazed on his face before he knew what hit him.  
  
"How dare you!!!" She cried, growling in the back of her throat. "The Tendo's have done nothing but protect this land! The taxes you pay go to the province tributaries and keep the countryside safe from marauders and bandits! Soun Tendo and his two eldest daughters work everyday signing treaties and visiting with diplomats to protect peace." Akane shook with anger and it was all she could do not to slap him again. "And this is what they get for gratitude?! A death wish on their whole family and scorn from a man who knows nothing about them!!" Akane turned on her heel, eyes blazing with fury.  
  
"Hey, why are you getting so riled up for? It's not like I was insulting you for being their gardener or anything." Ranma put his hands up, looking confused.  
  
"When you insult the Tendo's, you insult me," she spat. "They treat me like family and they are the greatest rulers this land has ever seen. You should be ashamed at your discontentment; they have kept this country free from war and strife. Do not blame them on your own shortcomings. If you do not have enough, you have only yourself to blame." Akane turned away and gave him a cold look from the corner of her eye. "That foul taste in your mouth is probably just the flavor of your own lack of character."  
  
With that she stormed away, leaving the pigtailed boy standing speechless in the crowded square.  
  
  
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A/N: So what do you think? Love at first site right? ::clears throat:: yeah....... suuuuure -_-;; 


	2. A Luncheon Apology

CHAPTER 2 - A Luncheon Apology  
  
  
  
"Put em right there dear," the graying man pointed to a bed of soft dirt on his left and Akane, her arms full of bulbs, walked over on her knees to where he indicated. She wore her breeches and work shirt again while her father and sisters were away at a neighboring dignitary, offering tribute to secure their north border. Akane had bitterly told them not to bother.  
  
Her thoughts were turned inward as she began planting the flower bulbs and they drifted to the pigtailed boy, as they often had over the past few days.  
  
How could he say such awful things! Akane bit her lip and smoothed dirt over her first bulb. He hadn't ever met Kasumi and Nabiki and if he did, he'd know right away there was nothing 'priggish' or 'mean' about them. Akane thought about her powerful sisters and their effective methods of persuasion and began to dig deeper into the soil, trying to hold back her anger.  
  
"Mistress," the old gardener tapped her on the shoulder, startling her from her reverie.  
  
"Hmm?" She asked, still preoccupied.  
  
"There's a young man walking up the slope and he's calling out Lord Ryoga's name. Should I send for your fiancé or have the boy escorted out my lady?"  
  
"What?!" Akane got to her feet and scanned the hill with her hand at her forehead, shading her eyes. She saw the familiar pigtail just as Ranma caught sight of her and waved.   
  
"No, don't worry about him Claude. He's here to see me." She picked up a handful of dirt and quickly rubbed it into her cheeks. "Tell Ryoga that I've gone off into the woods."  
  
The gardener nodded and Akane smiled gratefully. She ran down the slope to meet her visitor and the old man got up from his crouch and went inside.  
  
  
As she neared, Ranma pulled out from behind his back, two fat fish. "I wanted to apologize," he said, looking contrite. "It was wrong of me to judge the royals and I'm sure you know them better than most. So I'm sorry." Ranma waited and Akane gazed at him intently, sizing him up.  
  
He seems like he means it, she thought. "I accept your apology and thank you for it. The Tendo's are like family to me and treat me as such. I appreciate that you saw that but I'm surprised you came back just to tell me." Akane took a step towards him and Ranma let out a relieved smile.  
  
"Actually, I wanted to invite you to lunch by way of reconcile. I know this great little field where we can eat these." He held up the fish and Akane grinned.  
  
"Do I want to know how you came about getting them?"  
  
Ranma shook his head and they both laughed.  
  
  
***  
  
  
"Oh, I feel about to burst," Akane patted her stomach contentedly and Ranma looked over at her in surprise.  
  
"But you've barely eaten your fish." He pointed to the few nibbles on the fish's scales and Akane blushed. She'd forgotten that she wasn't dining with a young lord. As duchess she was expected to have the appetite of a bird and at banquets she was usually only allowed a small portion.  
  
"Well, maybe just a little bit more," she said, reaching timidly out towards the fish.  
  
"No wonder you're so skinny Ryoga." Ranma rolled his eyes. "Someone might mistake you for a royal woman with the way you eat."  
  
Akane hid her fear with a laugh. "And how would you know how any woman eats? They probably don't let you within a 100 feet of them, and they can still smell you from that far off anyway."  
  
Ranma grinned. "Oh yeah? Well it just so happens that I saw the youngest Tendo daughter one day out here on a picnic."  
  
"Really?" Akane almost choked on her fish.  
  
"Yeah, she was in this forest with a man, probably a suitor or something. And I saw her eat, so there!" Ranma stuck his tongue out and went back to his lunch.  
  
That must've been when I came out here with Ryoga, Akane thought. If this boy finds out who I am then it's all over and I'll have to go back to being a lady always.  
  
"I didn't see her up close or anything, but even from far away I could tell she was really pretty." Ranma said through mouthfuls of fish. Akane's head whipped around in interest.  
  
"Who, the youngest Tendo?"  
  
"Yeah, she's a bit too thin for my taste but she's definitely something to look at. Got a nice face and a good sized chest." Ranma put his finger on his chin, thinking and Akane's face grew red. "Her hair's nice, it's long and dark and she's got a great pair of eyes." He smiled and Akane looked down at the ground quickly, not meeting his gaze. She had hacked off all her hair in a fit of rage last month and for the first time was regretting it.  
  
"You know, there might be more to her than the way she looks," she said softly.  
  
"You don't have to tell me, I bet everyone in the kingdom knows she's a hellfire. She started arguing with the man she was with and he backed down right away. It was pretty funny, the girl had quite the temper and the suitor practically rolled over to be in her good graces again. She definitely didn't strike me as your run of the mill lady."  
  
Akane smiled in spite of herself.  
  
"Anyway Ryoga, I was wondering. There's going to be a little festival in my village tonight and I thought maybe we could make a day of it. Want to brush off your gardening and have some fun?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Uh, sure, I'd love to." Akane knew she should have said no but the words were out of her mouth before she knew it.  
  
Ranma smiled and clapped his hand on her knee. "Great! Let's get going right away." He stood up and Akane joined him. Together they walked out of the forest and started down the slope.  
  
Why did I agree to this, Akane asked herself, looking over at the pig-tailed boy. He gave her a big grin and put his arm around her shoulder.  
  
"Boy are we gonna have some fun!" Ranma laughed and behind Akane's forced smile she wondered what she'd gotten herself into. 


End file.
